


Fever Dream

by Baku



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Genre: Age of Ulton spoilers, Angst, Brothers, Feelings, Gen, I think we were all waiting for this, Kinda?, but not really?, magic dreams, or at least something like this, or maybe it was just me, survivor's guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-28 23:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3874492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baku/pseuds/Baku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor should have known that his mind would decide to tell him secrets in this way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this at one in the morning after coming home from the new Avengers movie. Re-wrote it three different times, still not happy with it, but it'll do.

     The world flashed and flickered around him, dancing with the bodies of women and flames in the hearths. In the corners of the room, sitting in the shadows were glowing eyes, the light flashing and illuminating spike and bone. Cracks in their faces as they leered when Thor stumbled away, wrenching free of Heimdall’s mad grasp.

 He had to remember what had happened, what he’d missed the first time.

 “You couldn’t save us, Thunderer.” A voice whispered on the heavy air, stifling as his fellow Asgardian shouted after him. “You sent us all to Hel!”

 Distantly, Thor could feel the water of the reflecting pool piercing coldly into his skin as static built over the surface.

 He stumbled through the dream-remembered, visions flash before his eyes. Stones of colour and power, slowly being revealed to the universe at large, convalescing into something so much bigger than him, than the earth, than anything anyone would ever have been able to imagine. It was too much to think about, to even conceive possible. The legends could not be true. He’d missed something, he was so sure. Thor pushed deeper into the crowd, elbowing aside wraiths who did nothing more than laugh and dance around him at his futile struggle. They were pressing in, the light to dark states circling faster and _faster-_

 The crowd pulled back so quickly he stumbled in the sudden loss of ghostly forms pressed against his. The prince of Asgard whipped around, arm reaching for the missing weight at his hip only to freeze where he stood.

 Before him stood a true ghost.

 The familiar sharp cheeks and nose, dark hair pulled back from his face, clothes simple in that way he’d loved before everything had gone wrong. Footsteps so quiet Thor could not hear them even in the sudden silence in the hall, gaunt grins painted onto the faces around them.

 “Loki.” The prince whispered to his brother. The word strangled in his throat as the air in Thor’s lungs turned to ice, painful and cold, as every waking moment had been since that fateful battle in Svartalfheim. The wraith only inclined his head, stepping ever forward as the larger Asgardian stood his ground, his heart feeling like it was breaking all over again, weeping blood anew from fissures that would never heal. When his brother finally stopped, every shaky breath of Thor’s brushed their chests together, so close were they that Thor could see the flecks of gold hidden in the green of the other god's eyes. Loki reached up with one hand to rest it on his brother’s shoulder. The other hand came up slowly to his own forehead, a golden gem flowing from his pale skin like a drop of water at the coaxing of long fingers before he pressed the jewel into Thor’s hand.

 In that moment, he understood what needed to be done. A vague idea of what would soon transpire in the nine-realms and a step that would need to be taken, at least here to prepare for the future. With this realization, the world around began to fragment, the people in it dissolving like morning mist, unable to keep hold in contest to the rising sun.

 As everything fell to pieces around them, Thor distantly feeling his body rise from the water as his mind flew back, Loki leaned up, pulling his brother down to whisper in his ear. Voice hushed in the way of their conversations as boys, of the very best of friends sharing an amazing secret that would get them in so much trouble if even a single soul over-heard.

 In the waking world, energy exploded outwards from the pool as the Norse god erupted from the waters, lightning leaping to stone from his skin with a thunderous shriek. Erik fell back in fear as he watched Thor roar with a pain so deep, he sounded like the very world was ending, like he would never stop until there was no air left in the universe to let him scream.

 Eventually it did end and in the ensuing silence neither of them mentioned the water on the Thor’s face that seemed to return no matter how many times he wiped it away with the towel the scientist handed him, or how his breaths were rattling and thick as he pulled himself from the water to dress. They made their way slowly out of the cave system, and the crown prince of Asgard heard the words again as they reached the entrance, the sun falling away to darkness as night fell and the wraith whispered to him even in the waking world.

 

 

 

_“You let me die.”_


End file.
